Latvia has announced that the Russian businessman, Alex Pospehov, has been blacklisted in the country due to accusations of misusing the country’s residence permit scheme.
The entrepreneur helped 21 other start-ups to obtain start-up visas, many of whom used Pospehov’s apartment address to obtain residence permits in the country, Schengen.News reports.
Some 292 Russian nationals and their families were able to obtain residence permits through the start-up programme, which was particularly popular in 2021 when the highest number of applications was filed – a total of 295. In 2022, the Latvian government decided to stop admitting applications from Russian candidates for the start-up programme.
Pospehov Blacklisted for Reasons Related to Latvia & EU National Security
As the Baltic News website reports, the Latvian government has blacklisted Pospehov because security experts believe that he puts Latvia’s and the European Union’s security at risk.
More specifically, Pospehov is suspected of helping people with ill intentions to enter Latvia. The Russian entrepreneur is reportedly living in Luxembourg and promoting how easy it is to obtain a Luxembourg passport, while before the pandemic, he had promoted Latvia as being a great destination for start-ups and how accessible visas and residence permits to this country were.
The Admissions Registry of Pospehov’s client firms that received start-up visas were closed in large numbers, while many of them had their residence permits, and only 41 Russian citizens still have them.
Latvia Imposes Stricter Rules on Russian Citizens
Since the war in Ukraine happened, Latvia has imposed stricter rules on Russian citizens and even expelled a dozen of them due to national security concerns.
The Citizenship and Migration Affairs Board (PMLP) announced in July that 60 Russian nationals were ordered to leave the country. By the half of 2024, about 2,000 Russian nationals had left the country on a voluntary basis.
On the other hand, the country also aims to introduce tighter rules for Russian nationals who want to buy property in Latvia. Before Latvia, Finland had plans to introduce a similar rule by banning Russians from buying real estate.
Latvia, in addition to Estonia and Lithuania, has a higher rate of Russian nationals, including here ethnic Russians and Russian migrants. Latvia is estimated to have the highest percentage of Russian speakers and ethnic Russians in the Baltic region.
Source: https://schengen.news/latvia-blacklists-russian-businessman-involved-in-residence-permit-exploitation/
